World Christianity and the Unfinished Task: A Very Short Introduction

By F. Lionel Young, III and Muthuraj Swamy

This book is a short introduction to one of the most remarkable transformations in the modern world that many people still do not know about. In 1900 more than 80 percent of the world's Christians lived in Europe and North America and nearly all of the world's missionaries were sent out "from the West to the rest." In a dramatic turn of events Christianity experienced a decidedly "Southern shift" during the twentieth century. Today nearly 70 percent of the world's 2.5 billion Christians live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, while nearly half of all missionaries are being sent out into all the world from places like Brazil, Ethiopia, and South Korea. This book is intended to change the way readers think about the church and challenge the way the Western Christians engage in contemporary missions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Mar 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781725266551

F. Lionel Young, III

F. Lionel Young III is a research associate at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide. He has worked as a lecturer in theology and history in theological institutions throughout the non-Western world. He also serves as the Executive Vice President of Global Action (USA), an international non-profit that provides theological education for underserved leaders in the developing world.

Book preview

9781725266537.kindle.jpg

World Christianity and the Unfinished Task

A Very Short Introduction

F. Lionel Young III

Foreword byMuthuraj Swamy

World Christianity and the Unfinished Task

A Very Short Introduction

Copyright ©

2021

F. Lionel Young III. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

, Eugene, OR

97401

.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

Eugene, OR

97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-6653-7

hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-6654-4

ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-6655-1

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Young, III, F. Lionel, author. | Swamy, Muthuraj, foreword writer.

Title: World Christianity and the unfinished task : a very short introduction / F. Lionel Young III.

Description: Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications,

2021

| Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers:

isbn 978-1-7252-6653-7 (

paperback

) | isbn 978-1-7252-6654-4 (

hardcover

) | isbn 978-1-7252-6655-1 (

ebook

)

Subjects: LCSH: Missions—History | Christianity—

20

th century | Christianity—

21s

t century

Classification:

BR121.3 Y68 2021 (

paperback

) | BR121.3 (

ebook

)

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

06/17/21

Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: Shifting Southward

Chapter 2: Counting Every Soul on Earth

Chapter 3: Converting Colonialism

Chapter 4: The Surprising Work of God

Chapter 5: The Unfinished Task

Chapter 6: The White Man’s Burden

Chapter 7: A Century of Partnerships?

Bibliography

Over the last century Christianity has become a world religion as never before, with popular followings in almost every land. In this book Lionel Young explains succinctly how the process has taken place but is also insistent that the task of spreading the gospel worldwide is unfinished.

—David W. Bebbington

University of Stirling, Scotland

This is now the best introduction to world Christianity for thoughtful, literate, everyday Christians—the very people who most need to understand the realities that Lionel Young describes. God has rocked the Christian world during the past several decades, upending what many took for granted about the church. It’s time we paid attention and participated humbly in the surprising work of God in the Global South.

—Douglas Sweeney

Beeson Divinity School

This is a compact, accessible primer full of essential facts about the link between world Christianity and mission. Young’s passion for the subject is evident in the relevant stories and personal anecdotes he skillfully weaves into the compelling narrative. I highly recommend this book to pastors, missionaries, and scholars with a growing interest in the fascinating trajectories of Christianity in the non-Western World.

—Kyama Mugambi

Author of A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya

The extraordinary transformation in the global composition and cultural flavor of Christianity that has taken place in the last half-century have attracted the attention of numerous scholars, but sadly have yet to penetrate the consciousness of the average churchgoer in the West. Lionel Young’s readable and stimulating survey will surely help to address that deficit, widening horizons and dispelling preconceptions.

—Brian Stanley

University of Edinburgh

Lionel Young has written a concise and exciting look at the dramatic changes occurring in global Christianity today, and I heartily recommend it. I envision pastors sharing this book with their congregations, explaining the crucial yet often unnoticed shifts within Christianity that are happening right outside our doorsteps.

—Dyron Daughrity

Pepperdine University

I am delighted that Lionel Young has produced this book, which is based on his thorough knowledge of world Christianity and is written in a pleasingly accessible way. We lacked this very short introduction to the subject and now that need has been met—splendidly.

—Ian Randall

Cambridge Center for Christianity Worldwide

Don’t let the subtitle fool you. This ‘very short introduction’ will be shocking to the average Western Christian. It is staggering to see through these pages how Christianity has emerged and is flourishing in the Global South. This very short book casts a very long vision for Christian mission in the twenty-first century.

—Steve DeWitt

Author of Eyes Wide Open: Enjoying God in Everything

This is an important book for anyone who cares about the state of global Christianity. Lionel Young combines his personal experience in global missions with impressive academic rigor to draw a complete picture to show how God is at work in the world in unprecedented and surprising ways.

—Rick Thompson

Global Action and Council Road Baptist Church

This highly accessible book speaks directly to Christians in the West as the latest one-stop shop for understanding world Christianity today. Lionel Young has masterfully woven together history and the present, missions and human rights, Global North and Global South, and Catholics and Protestants to send a powerful message of Christian unity for the twenty-first century.

—Gina A. Zurlo

Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Dedicated to my loving wife Stacy Suzann. I will never forget our time in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills. My life has never been the same.

Pentecost, as the beginning of the new age of God’s salvation, is not a reversion to the unity of cultural uniformity; it is an advance toward harmony in cultural diversity.

—Miroslav Volf

Foreword

World Christianity as a theme within the study of the history of Christianity and world missions has received significant scholarly attention during the last few decades. A vast amount of literature has been produced—and this continues—showing how this subject is central to understanding the growth of Christianity in different parts of the world. Implications are often drawn out for Christians in the West for doing world missions in the twenty-first century as Christians together. The emphasis is on learning from each other while participating in mission, rather than seeing the West as mission giver and the rest as receivers.

Christianity, from the beginning, has strived to be a world movement connecting Jerusalem and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). We see that this begins with the mission work of the apostles in the early church who travelled to different parts of the world. This continued in medieval times, but grew rapidly during the last few centuries. Born in the context of Enlightenment and European expansion, and accompanied with a sense of urgency—evangelizing the whole world in this generation—modern missions took Christianity in western clothes to many parts of the world, including where Christianity already existed in localized forms.

While the efforts to make Christianity a world religion have been part of the history of Christianity for centuries, the current focus on World Christianity has emerged due to many changing factors in the twenty-first century. Primary among them is the great demographic shifts. As many studies in World Christianity have pointed out, now there are more Christians living in what is termed the Global South—Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Oceania—than in the Western parts of the world. This reality is very different compared to the beginning of the twentieth century, when more than 80 percent of the world’s Christians still resided in the West. In the eyes of many, Christianity is no longer a Western religion, but truly a world religion as never before.

With this has come a critical look, among Christians, at missionary work and their histories and legacies. While not denouncing or undermining completely what Western missionaries have done in taking Christianity to different parts of the world, critical perspectives have emerged throwing new light on missionary work. With the arrival of contextual theologies and postcolonial frameworks, these approaches have been sharpened and strengthened. The missionaries’ attitudes and approaches to local cultures, traditions, and histories, and their collaborations with (and distance from) colonial administrators are some important topics focused in the study of World Christianity. But, attention is increasingly paid not just to how and what missionaries contributed through their work but also to how local cultures and traditions interacted with Christianity, rather than viewing themselves as there just to be replaced by Western Christianity. Most importantly, the contextual factors surrounding the existence and growth of Christianity in the Global South—both in the past and today—often show how these are different from the Western situation and how they fuel the rapid growth of Christianity in these parts of the world. The local Christians’ role in indigenous missions, ecumenical relations, and making strong connections between Christianity and the local context—all of which have not often been focused in the missionary histories and biographies—have started to receive focus in the study of World Christianity.

One of the important aspects of World Christianity, for me, is the existence of many Christianities and how they are connected. Modern Western Christianity has generally worked from the assumption of the West as giver of the gospel and the rest as receiver of this mission. But this approach has significant limitations as many historians of Christianity and missiologists have now shown. What is important in the twenty-first century is how we as Christians in different parts of the world can join hands and learn from each other in witnessing to the gospel. In the Book of Acts, Paul’s missionary journeys were not always and not strictly about reaching non-Christians and planting churches. Paul spent a great deal of his time in his missionary journeys in visiting Christians and connecting them with each other (i.e., connecting Christians from different regions). The invitation to learn about World Christianity is an opportunity for Western Christians to connect with and learn from Christians living in other contexts amidst many cultures, traditions, and religions to participate in the mission of God as Christians together.

Lionel Young brings out the importance of this approach to Christian mission in this book. He invites Christians, particularly those in the West, many of whom have long neglected the story of World Christianity, to be mindful of the many Christianities that exist, particularly in the Global South. Even though there are a number of works available on World Christianity, Young’s is one of the first of its kind that aims to cater to a wider audience—common Christians who want to learn about World Christianity and participate in Christian mission. He offers lucid and succinct discussions with a very simple and easy-to-follow style. Scholars and students who are looking for an up-to-date very short introduction to World Christianity will readily find one in this book.

As Young points out, what the theme of World Christianity reminds us is that Christian mission is an unfinished task and this is the time we move beyond the notions of white man’s burden and the Western church as saviour of the world. In the context of many challenges affecting Christian life and practice both in the West and in the Global South, and the reality of polycentric and reverse missions, Christianity and Christian mission in the twenty-first century is more about acknowledging the many Christianities that are rooted in local cultures and contexts. It is about being connected as worldwide Christians in order to learn from each other in living and witnessing to the gospel.

Muthuraj Swamy¹

Cambridge, Summer 2020

1

. Muthuraj Swamy is the Director of the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide and a member of the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my friends at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide (CCCW) for helping make this project possible. Muthuraj Swamy, Polly Keen, Ruth Maclean, Philip Saunders, and Ian Randall have made Cambridge feel like a home away from home and given me space for uninterrupted study and writing. I want to thank those who have read all or portions of this manuscript and offered helpful comments before publication: David Bebbington, Bailey Bada, Heath Carter, Steve DeWitt, Dyron Daughrity, Todd Johnson, Kyama Mugambi, Linda Ocholo, Ian Randall, Muthuraj Swamy, Jeff Peterson, Brian Stanley, Douglas Sweeney, Rick Thompson, and Gina Zurlo. I wish to express appreciation to Michael Thompson and Robin Parry at Cascade Books. Michael believed in this project from the beginning, and Robin provided keen editorial guidance to the end.

I am grateful for the assistance I have received from staff members at the Africa Inland Mission International archives in Nottingham, England, the Booher Library at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, the Cambridge University Library, the Henry C. Crowell Library at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, the Stitt Library at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Westcott House in Cambridge, Westminster College Library in Cambridge, and the Special Collections on Evangelism and Missions at the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois.

I want to thank my family for their unconditional love and constant encouragement. Stacy, Fleetwood, Molly, Vesper, Robby, and Bradley are each a source of God-given joy in my life. I also want to thank my colleagues and our board members at Global Action for welcoming me so warmly into their family and encouraging me to lead, teach, study, and write for the global church and the glory of God. It is my prayer that this very short introduction will give others a better understanding of why we are all so passionate about the work we are doing together.

F. Lionel Young III

Cambridge, England

Introduction

This book is a very short introduction to one of the most remarkable transformations in the 2,000-year history of the church. In the year 1900 more than 80 percent of the world’s Christians were either European or Anglo American—and nearly all of the world’s missionaries were being sent out to Africa, Asia, or Latin America from Western nations. In an extraordinary turn of events, spanning a little more than 100 years, the demographic center of Christianity dramatically shifted to the Southern Hemisphere. Today the vast majority of Christians, nearly 70 percent, are African, Asian, or Latin American and nearly half of the world’s full-time cross cultural missionaries are being sent out from the non-Western world. The secularization thesis, the notion that the world was becoming more secular, has now been overturned. Contrary to the assumptions of many people in North America and Western Europe, the world is actually becoming more religious. As Timothy Keller put it in a 2017 tweet, The whole world is not getting more secular, white people are getting more secular.¹ The old maps of the religious world that still exist in the minds of many Western people are now as outdated as colonialism itself. The present work introduces readers to the phenomenal reordering of contemporary Christianity, telling the story of how it happened, and also posing the question: Now that Christianity has grown so rapidly in the non-Western world, what does this mean for the ongoing work of world mission?²

The expression World Christianity (also referred to as Global Christianity) came into ascendency beginning in the 1980s as scholars began to turn their attention to the surprising growth of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.³ Almost without exception the available works on World Christianity have been published by academic presses for scholars and students. Dana Robert’s cover article Shifting Southward appeared in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research in 2000 and marked the beginning of a new era of scholarly attention on the global church. Her work anticipated several important book-length studies on World Christianity.⁴ In 2002, Philip Jenkins unveiled his award-winning work The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity and awakened an even larger audience to the unexpected arrival of global Christianity. As he put it most succinctly, The era of Western Christianity has passed in our lifetimes, and the day of Southern Christianity is dawning.⁵ Jenkins reprimanded Western scholars and presses for ignoring what he